November brings us closer winter as Ireland's weather turns grumpy, damp and cold. The decommissioning issue still festers in the North and punches are tossed after David Trimble's reelection as first minister. However, the loyalist-republican battleground near Belfast's beleaguered Holy Cross school has abated as the month winds down.

And we touch on other aspects of the Irish in this issue, with Pól Ó Conghaile of  The Irish American Post's Dublin bureau telling about the new Muslim world in the Republic and of the challenges it faces. In another essay, Yankeeland writer Margaret Melloy Guziak describes her delightful 'Da' and her Philadelphia family.

In this issue, we also "horse around" a bit as Laura Harrison McBride describes the riding world of Ireland. On a more serious note, Fergal Keane, award-winning foreign journalist, describes what it's like to be the maelstrom of war and tells where he is now heading.

So tune in. Read on. Settle down by the fireplace as the nights grow longer. Scratch the old wolfhound behind his ears and drain a wee bit o' the elixir of life.

Martin Hintz, publisher.
 

Letters to the Editor

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